


The Avengers: Infinity's End

by KatieDrapes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Marvel Universe, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-06-26 02:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieDrapes/pseuds/KatieDrapes
Summary: There was no victory at the end of this battle. Instead there are a handful of survivors who have been left in the aftermath of Thanos.  What was left for the would-be heroes? Thanos got his wish, brought his dreams to fruition and left the universe in utter chaos. Meanwhile the survivors try and piece together the remaining fragments of the would-be team. Two are stranded in an unknown part of the universe on a dead planet while the Kingdom of Wakanda is beginning to unravel at the loss of their King. What are they to do? What is left for what remaining Avengers now that the team was ripped into shreds? They are in need of someone other than a superhero. They need a scientist. A scientist who touched a stone and gained something more. The God of Thunder finds himself back in the life of someone he thought he had walked away from forever. A human who fought her battles with her intelligence and a very hard slap across the face.All while the most powerful forces in the universe, six stones, are beginning to play now that they've granted the wish of a Titan. The infinite six are the power that cannot be controlled nor contain. They demand themselves to be set free."The Six cannot be joined nor kept apart"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A continuation of Avenger's Infinity war. I do not own any of the characters of the marvel universe. I truly hope you enjoy the "what if" scenario after our heroes deal with the aftermath of the Titan's war.

Chapter 1

Silence was not what the world was. There was a stillness, a loss of…. everything. Of everyone, never had their been a loss like this. Not so cataclysmic as this. A snap of fingers and the world was gone. Silence was not here, this was shattering and destructive. But for the few ears tuned, for the few lives spared they heard it, joined in themselves with a keening loss. Their voices, soft at first, before raising up. Wails. immeasurable loss that built to a crescendo. Okoye was the first to break in the hemline of the trees. Her king wrenched from her grasp in front of her eyes. By a force not her strength nor her spear could stop. In the grasslands of Wakanda it’s people mourned for their friends that had been lost on the battlefield, the brothers and sisters, mothers and children, for their king. Their loss was heard. 

They had been too late, they had thrown the wrong punch, threw a god killing axe at the heart instead of the head. They had not done enough, and despite all the blood shed there was far more blood that was lost. 

And now…. now there was nothing. There was no plan X, there was no one hiding in the shadows as if this was all preconceived and could be negated. There was just this. And for once Steve Rogers did not have the shield of Captain America to cast away the fear. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natasha Romanov stood off to the side, every emergency and private numbers flashing though her intercom. She broke every protocol and every precautionary measure. For the first time in her life, safety and survival was not at the back of her mind. It was gone from there. Instead she was hoping someone picked up the phone, anyone—

“Auntie Nat?” It’s a small hiccuped cry. Natasha’s breath caught, relief washing over giving the slightest bit of reprieve from cavern she found herself in. “Hey there Lila, I’m coming right for you ok? I just need you to answer a couple of questions for me ok?” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alone. On a planet he knew nothing about… how far lost in the vastness of space and time was he? His mind started trying to put together equations because thats all he could do. that was what he could d. He was best at, the sky scrapers with his name, the international success and the suit…. he had thought the suit was his crowning achievement…. , but they were met with question after question. He had too many variables he couldn’t account for. Absolutely nothing! 

Not a God damned thing. 

So Tony Stark was left with perpetuating questions, over and over, even one fumbling over themselves. It was all he could do, He pushed so far because …. light years…light years could affect time, how much time had truly passed? What was happening down on earth? 

Who had lost down there? Who had he lost? 

He let himself fold inward, the responsibilities thrown away and he let his girl slip away, he was bleeding out he was sure. His suit was only pushing at the bare minimum, it’s energy conserved for the sole purpose of trying to maintain the damage that had already been done. Including the attempted work around of the giant shard of rock imbedded in his side. What tools did he have left at his hand? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He stood far off from the others. consumed by this devastation weighing upon him. Everything was … lost. What else was there to describe this ache in his very being? What else was there? His mother…. and father…. his people and the home he’d known all his life. The vast lands he had discovered, the memories of youth and wilds. He lost Loki, the brother and enemy, a dear friend that was to fight forever. The ebb and pull of together and apart. 

“Brother, if there is by some chance your sorcery at work. Whether it be from plan or preservation, I ask—I beg you now to end your charade.” A childish hope clutched him then, waiting for something to change, for the air to shift, the ringing in his ears as the sound barrier breaks…a void….anything. But buried further down, past that small bit of leftover bit of hope was truth. “Please”, his voice broke. 

But the events, of what seemed like years ago, played back in his mind. At his brother’s final breath, of the shock in his eyes that for once there was no backdoor for the God of Mischief to escape from. He had pulled his last trick. 

He truly felt he couldn’t breath, couldn’t pull is thoughts together long enough to surface from under the water. His fingers sparked with electrical current, it seemed to crack over every thought that slipped to another person, another face he knew well and lost, from a friendly face that had passed by…. the faces and the young ones and the hopeful. Who’d had dreams of being a hero. That was what he was supposed to have been. It was why he had claimed to give up the throne. To stave off the reigns that would tie him to a throne and to be a people. The responsibility he had chosen to wield had offered him a freedom his father had never once been afforded. Something not even the forefather had been allowed a chance to witness and experience. So the God of Thunder had basked in this freedom, for it seemed to him, that the gift had a balance that weighed an oath to protect all the realms. 

What cosmic fool he had been. To have such an egotistical idea. He had been what had done him in. Even when he struck the ace, he had gotten closer than no other avenger had. He had caught the titan unawares. With all his might he had cast the axe down into the Titan’s heart. Not the head, not the neck. Those thoughts had crossed his mind but he had wanted the heart. Striking the heart meant a slower death, one that created a helpless realization of defeat. He had selfishly wanted the words that he had vowed, the promise of revenge to be real. He wanted the last face Thanos saw his, and know who dealt the last blow. Who destroyed his plans just as he had destroyed the very being that Thor was. Instead his enemy laughed at him, at his apparent foolish attempt. And with a mere snap of his fingers he won. Thanos had bested some of the greatest warriors that Thor had ever seen, they rivaled the Gods and warriors he had battled alongside over the centuries.  
And the worlds that were so much more empty. 

This world…. how broken it had become, he was only in a small part of it, and yet this was so much more then he could bare. This world had such important memories, such wonderful ones. Ones filled with Jane.

Jane! Thor’s spine straightened. The purest memories of tis world had been gifted to him from a scientist who studied and yearned for the stars. What of her? How had she fared through all this…. did she—? The God of thunder could barely wrap his thoughts around the idea that this would be another thing he would have to bare. But this one, thought Thor, this one would be his complete undoing  
.  
A part of him, for a brief moment, flashed through him. Daring him not to go out and tempt fate more than he had already dared. But his fear for her, the love that he had pushed down to respect her wishes and protect himself, flared brighter and knew that he could not stay away. He need to go now, find her and protect her, somehow. A goal in mind, something he not thought capable after all that had transpired, stood up and made his way back towards the semblance of lost souls that had managed to find solace in the few beings that had survived it all.

Steve Rogers seemed the most put together of them all. At this in perhaps in the front he was putting up. But, Thor suspected, the man truly was stronger than he appeared. For in a way, this man had already learned how to carry the weigh of a world that was no more. One day he had fallen asleep thinking that he had saved the world and when he woke up had found a different one, so vastly different. Those he had loved, all gone. Unfortunately the world now shared an understanding of the man who was out of time. 

“Steve Rogers I must leave. There is something I must do.” 

The Captain’s eyes flashed up toward the God. Something flashed there, an understanding. “Go find her.” 

“I—“ He paused, this being before him was far more than just a man, he thought. There was a knowledge that came with the years that this man had lived. More than any he had come across on Midgard. “I’ll return as soon as I am able. When i have answers”. 

“You sure?” Rogers wouldn’t have blamed him for not coming back, he wasn’t sure that all those that still stood here on tis field would want to continue after the outcome of his war. 

“I have nowhere else to go”, Thor admitted. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He set off after that, walked a good distance away from the others. The way his mind was whirling and the way his emotions crashed themselves against the barriers of his mind kept him wary of how much he could control the power coursing through him. He just needed enough space to prevent anything else form happening. 

As he raised his arm, his axe now his conduit, he realized he wasn’t quite sure where Jane actually was. Perhaps she was still at that small apartment in London… but maybe not. She had been such a sought after scientist for her knowledge in astrophysicist and astronomy that she had begun traveling the world. She’d been sharing her knowledge with the world and discovering new clues to the answers she asked. Where had she gone? 

But before that question could truly plague him he felt something. He pulled instinctively at something in the core of his very self. It was a warmth that spread quickly through his system. His thoughts flashed with different moments, pockets in time, that were filled with just Jane. There were the quiet moments; the nights they had laid out together under the stars. He had shared stories of his times in other realms. He had told the stories of the stars, the mythologies of the constellations, not just of his home, but of the others. The ones his friends had shared when they were younger and the ones his mother had told him as a boy. Thor remember the times when Jane had made him laugh, when he couldn’t help but smile at the times she had been flustered by his lack of midgardian customs. He thought it was cute when her brow furrowed and she would bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. 

Thor held on to those memories, to those feelings. He pulled the parts that made up Jane and brought them to the forefront. And there it was, the power surged up and through him. It struck him then, sure as the lightning that came down from the sky, where she had last been, where she still might be. He knew where he must go if he wanted to find his scientist. 

The called the power to him, the world around him brighten into a brilliant flash of colors, light, and stars. The charred grass was all that remained.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone has their secrets, ones shared by a few close friends, ones shared on a small journal crammed into some forgotten corner hidden away, and then there are some that can’t be spoken out loud and can’t be written down. Those were the ones that were locked away behind sealed lips, locked away in the back of one's mind, barely touched in case it opens Pandora’s Box. Everyone has their secrets, and the scientist Jane Foster was no exception to that, but there was one particular secret that she was afraid to play around with the privacy of her mind. It had been hidden for so long that even she could pretend that nothing was wrong. Mantras of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ had become a best friend of sorts. Jane had witnessed so much. Perhaps it had all been a dream, a different person who had stood before great beings and powers. Because right now, here, amid the mass of lab coats and facts, it didn’t seem possible that there could be any other way that reality could seem to work. 

Like the mere fact that Jane Foster had fallen for a God. Not love of faith for a God. not a worshiped relationship, not even one through the pages of a book. But an actual one; that was made of flesh and bone and something more. She had fallen for someone she selfishly thought that she could keep for herself. That teenage dream had quickly died after fantasy had crashed into reality. 

None of her adventures three years ago seemed real to her. In fact, those days seem far longer than three years, they seemed like another lifetime. It seemed more likely that another being that had told her a story over drinks one night and Jane had, somehow, believed it to be her own. How had she cracked the design and understanding of the Einstein-Rosen bridge? Jane traveled to another planet and another realm, an idea only her 12-year-old mind had believed possible. Most painful of all, she had given her heart to a God. But after so many years, Jane was ok with letting it all slip away in the recesses of her mind for good. Jane had been fine with that actually, she had been fine to let those feelings turn to ash and dust and let the future, the now, keep her present. This was the type of relationship that Jane could help nurture. 

There were plenty of secrets that Jane kept hidden. She had even been impressed when she had kept the few darkest ones closest to her, even her dearest friends Darcy and Erik, hadn’t been able to pull clues from her mouth. She had kept those locked away as best she could. Not even allowing herself a small chance of curiosity. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane had known something was wrong over a month ago. It happened one night after hours spent in front of research notes and equations; she was woken up with sweat clinging to her skin, hair plastered to her face, and a heart that was beating far too fast. She’d woken with this knowing. Something lost that needed to be… reconnected. whatever it was hummed deep inside her. It was something broken, a strong yearning to be complete. 

A small fracture of her nightmares had been made real that night. It was a stir of wings in her chest that grew to spill over her shoulders and back. The aether was still there, fragments that stuck to her being. It had never completely left her. Jane had spent many months ignoring it and many more months after that doing experiments on herself to try and get answers. It had been several weeks since she had hit a wall in her research and finally thrown in the towel. She had come to terms with a few things.

The aether had fit somehow with her. It had neither been good or bad—just a growing and pulsating force. Something far older than life. Something that just was. 

Her days had been spent in paranoia after that. Days of waiting for something to come, an alien to land in front of her….or behind her car as she backed out from a parking spot. Something had to be coming. It was days of startling sounds and anxious corners, and it was always watching the news reports out of the corner of her eyes at work. All while it never left. It was a constant dull sense of dread that weighed inside her. It had gone on for so long that Jane had strangely gotten used to the compliance of paranoia and fear. She had gone for hours with no sleep, staying up at night to check news from around the world; pulling at both national and local news. Noting strange happenings in the struggling country of Wakanda that stated it wasn’t a country that needed aid. A mysterious hooded figure that had seemed to appeared from nowhere and landed on the NYC pavement, wearing what seemed to be temple monk garb. Then there was another rabbit hole about a mysterious Winter Solider that had started making appearances throughout the years, but they dated far back for those to be just one person…She’d tracked the strange occurrences that had been taking place all over the world. Jane had created a timeline, so to speak. over the last two and a half years since the time she’d battled with an elfin alien. And one particular guy almost always ended up in the middle of it all. It wasn’t always the case, but his calling card was hard to miss when he did.

Once again, just like so many times in the past, she threw herself into her research and had let it engulfed her, consumed every moment of her time looking into news from weeks ago that she missed the things in front of her. Things that were happening under her very nose. Jane was so hellbent in her research she stopped watching the news from the corner of her eye and instead at the lead of articles dating a week back. 

Jane should have known better. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now here she was. That fluttering pain had expanded into something that was eating away at her. The pain seemed to flare spontaneously throughout her body. Flaring up in one place for a searing second before it was numb and cooling over her flesh only to rage war against another area just as quickly. Her lungs could barely fill, she was gulping it down, desperate and thirsty for air.

And Darcy…. where had she gone? she’d been there just a few minutes ago.

The world had been fine one moment; the day to day of the average person spilled into one another’s daily routines. It started as every other catastrophe that'd taken place in the last ten years. As if it had become a reversed production. Someone in the room shouted “Quick! Turn on the TV!” It never did matter what channel it had been on previously when things like this had occurred. Someone found remote and turned on the tv, it was flashing in bold black lettering across the screen, a newscaster was already relaying whatever details they could grasp through their earpiece. Another alien invasion, the terrifying magnificent beings from others worlds that wrecked havoc on earth, and the ending of the world as they knew it yet again. 

She watched with others around, strangers, co-workers, and students mixed together. I seemed as if the whole university Jane was guest teaching at had somehow tried crowding around a small screen in a small room. At first, it had been a morbid fascination that had kept those around her watching. This was all happening on the other side of the world. What worry did they have? After all the heroes had converged together; names already murmured as recognizable figures flashed across the screen. Even Jane couldn’t help the twinge in the stomach when she watched that familiar streak of lightning across the sky. Jane Foster recognized the beam of light similar to the one she’d ridden in so long ago; so much time had passed the dreams had started to seem more real than the memories. While they weren’t together anymore there was an unshakable faith in what he could do. She’d seen it first hand. 

He’d come back, Thor the God of Thunder. But something was different, something had changed. It sounded so strange, there was no basis for that feeling. But the longer she watched the screen the more she began to realize what it was. 

It was until she paid closer attention to the lightning that she began to truly worry. There was something different. This was far more than the ones that crashed down from the skies. The ones across the screen had prowled over the ground like a living creature. It was erratic. Even when Jane had watched the God receive the gift of thunder and lightning all that power had collected onto one fixated point. Thor had been able to orchestrate its direction. It was tamed and honed by someone who knew a sense of control. This, however, was everywhere. The lighting now was far more destructive; striking out across the earth at multiple points and felling just as many foes. Something was different, some new factor, a new variable. Something was wrong. It was Darcy that had reached for her phone first, she’d seen something first, acted first. What had she seen? 

Before Jane had been able to do anything—even begin to list off the options left open to her; everything just stopped. A powerful blast of light screamed through the air and a defining roar cut away the sound. The world watched as it went deaf.

The world had come alive with a scream. 

The first of those screams happened two desks over from Jane. As one the room spun toward the sound and witnessed Leslie watching on in horror as her lab partner, Stewart, became nothing more than brittle dust. Showering the world and dissolving into the air….higher….lost. The world had tilted on its axis. The dull ache had exploded through her. Power exploding forth. The fear in the room, the fear in her chest, the knowing that had curdled in the pit of her stomach finally drop Jane dropping to her knees. She went crashing down, the shouts from her friend muffled by the harsh ring in her ears. It was like watching a movie, she saw everything that was happening but she couldn't do anything about it. Darcy was in front of her, she was asking questions. The pain was unbearable. Shouting, Jane was pretty sure that Darcy had hit a shrill point in her commands. Her friend gripped her hand and tried to pull Jane to her feet, but her legs wouldn’t work. Darcy kept eyeing the phone as if had could have solved her problem. 

Then the hand that gripped her arm in concern was suddenly gone. Washed away as Jane shuttered out a breath. The voice calling her name disappeared, abruptly ended, choked off. In the stuttering moment, it took for her eyes to shut involuntarily and then flash open Darcy was just gone. Everyone was gone. 

Every second was slowed, the world moved as if it pushed itself through the water. An unsettled quiet had been born, only her gasps broke through it all. It was an obtrusive loud sound that echoed throughout the room. There was no one else, the two Jane had seen rushing from the room in terror were long gone at this point. She wasn’t even sure they didn’t disappear along with the others. It was just her. 

Jane blinked past the tears, after what seemed hours the pain started to ebb away, slowly pulling back on its rampaging anger. Her sense started to pull back to the forefront of her mind again. Hearing started to come back, sounds started to play again. An overwhelming silence smothered her. The world around her was covered in dust, she was coated in dust. As the pain began to wash away exhaustion took over her. It hung heavy on her limbs and pulled at her eyes. For a moment she thought to fight it, but there was a lacking sense of urgency coursing through her. A heavy attitude of ‘fuck it’ came over her. What did it matter if she fell asleep where she was? It had seemed that the world was breaking apart. They were gone, everyone was gone. Jane let herself succumb to her body’s wishes. Did she have much control over it anyway? From what she could tell flashes of red light still rippled over her skin…. she had theories already but…. she was so tired….

Just as her eyes began to shut a screech of metal sliced through the air. How much could happen in one day? What could possibly happen now? For two seconds there was a pause then a wailing sound. It was young, innocent, and completely petrified—a child’s. 

Jane fought off the staves of exhaustion over her body and gave in to the adrenaline that pulled at her again, it woke her up, got her brain moving with rapid though, arms and legs pulling herself up from the ground. On unsteady feet, Jane made her way to the window, following the sounds and using the wall to lean against as she pushed forward. Someone was still out there… someone needed help….

Out in the courtyard of the university, a car had managed to careen itself and crash into the university’s gates. There didn’t seem to be a driver or a passenger, but the infant’s cries carried her. 

There wasn’t a sense of responsibility, it wasn't a maternal instinct that suddenly washed over her. But it was something, perhaps simply just the need for another survivor and the desperation that she couldn’t be the only one left. So she ran as best she could, her head swam, the world had gathered at a different axis, but the shrill terrified child was still loud in her ears. Jane was outside minutes later, acknowledging nothing else around her; not the empty pavement that should have been filled with students and professors, or the way her shoes clicked against the buildings and alleys. 

When she made it to the car her palms slapped against the glass and Jane peered inside seeing a small boy still strapped in his car seat. It was a scared little boy with dark curls and tear stained cheeks who reached out to her at seeing another person. She cooed softly for him, only him, and that kept the panic off her face and the hysteria out of her voice. Jane could put her entire being into getting this boy out of that car, getting him to some sort of safety. Jane pulled all her thoughts into a single focus on him. This she could do. She yanked the door open and continued her coos while pulling at the straps around him. So many God damned straps! There didn’t seem to be any severe signs of injury, no glass in his hair or cuts on his face. The damage was mostly done to the front of the car. 

The straps came away and just as she reached forward to grab the toddler the cries abruptly stopped. He sat frozen, his mouth open mid-cry, his eyes on her. Those eyes looked at her with accusation. She watched as greyed ash fell like snow over her hands, some being carried off in the breeze. “N-n-no! No!” Jane grasped at the child’s arms. A desperate sad attempt. For a moment she felt him there, solid and real beneath her fingers, but the flesh under gave way. It was just her again.   
Something pulled from her throat, an inhuman sound and fell back down to the ground. This was a different pain, still physical but unique. A quiet astute pain. Everything around her had an odd sense of familiarity and foreign. It was looking at everything for the first time. 

Finally, a scream ripped out. A silent choir rose up with her, joining ones that were etched into her memories forever now. Completely and utter devastation ripped through her. She didn’t move, no matter the sounds around her. Stone had fallen somewhere around her… she was sure. Jane was afraid of what she’d find if she went looking. It seemed that whenever she had looked for something it had been disastrous, buildings had fallen down around her discoveries. She had become paralyzed, not from fear, but from denial. A nightmare that was never-ending. This all had to have been a horrible nightmare. It had to. After all that she had seen, after all, she had witnessed this couldn’t be the outcome. 

The heroic follies, Jane had witnessed their power in person. Jane had seen actual Gods battle each other, yet there was still a collapse of civilization. She had no idea of the damage. Was it just the city? The country? Was Iceland rid of the human hand on its land? 

Jane became wrapped up in her own thoughts again. Instead of being buried in questions she sought out escape and solace. She was a proud person, she could admit that to herself, she prided herself on not asking for help and how hands-on she was with projects and research. Right now, though, that feeling was completely washed away. In its place was a tide that was pulling out her, weighing a heavy helplessness. 

There was no drop, then two, after a few minutes rain fell in a steady beat she could lull her body into. It was a cool reprieve from the hot sticky air, the sweat that stuck to her skin and the ashes that clung to her. Jane tilted her head back, and pushed back her from her face, her fingers then went to work shedding the gray that remained. She wiped at her face. God Jane was tired. She should probably get out of the rain, she thought. But stayed right where she was. For the last few years, she’d had discovered a soothing comfort from it. It settled like a blanket over her. She’d hold onto this little comfort for as long as she could. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane felt it before she saw the beam of light that crashed into the ground not far away. It had been the way the air had thickened over her and the thunder that sounded off in the distance. He always made an entrance where ever he went. Never the same, but always an entrance. 

The scientist focused her eyes on the figure in the distance. He changed so much, she thought absently. The being before her was fare more—vastly more than a knight in shining armor. He was a God. 

“You came back,” she whispered. About damn fucking time. She couldn’t fight anymore, not against the questions drowning her or the exhaustion wrecking havoc on her body. Jane let herself slip into a warm darkness, come what may.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for right now! I hope that you enjoyed the latest installment in the series! Next chapter will be coming within the week.  
> Please comment, kudos, and bookmark to keep updated on what's to come!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jane’s consciousness hadn’t fully surfaced yet, it lay somewhere between oblivion and reality. She could feel the weight of her eyelids and the hair that curled around her neck, there was a feeling of peace, of warmth. She let herself float in limbo. Jane could have stayed there forever, emotions and pain, they seemed to have drifted away from her. She could feel them in the distance, if she probed around in the recesses of her thoughts. It was there that she felt a small tug, finite, but there, distinct, and it pulled at her. 

So she let the current take her, let it sweep her past the far reaches in her mind and somewhere else. That warmth she had found so comforting before grew steadily to the point that it stung. The same sting you got from step-ing in a hot shower after being out all day in the snow; the way that it pricked at your skin and the blood rush through your extremities. It was the feeling of burning that started to wake up the scientist. Jane focused on that pull more now, fixated on it till it led her somewhere…. 

A door in the abyss, somewhere in a nothing vastness appeared in front of her. An average door that held no distinct markers or coloring, it was any old door that you’d pass in multitude going down any street. A simple door with a simple door knob. Her fingers curled around the door knob and turned. where it led was a very familiar, very frightening place. It had been a place of mystery.

How… how was that possible? Jane found herself suddenly there again, same as it had been a few years ago. Instead of an abandoned building in the down trodden back waters in London holding the means of a portal it was a door to the other realm accessed through her mind. Some things had changed since the last time she had been there too… she noticed the small differences as she made her way further in down the long corridor of dust and cobwebs. They were there, in small details. A lot that she had missed before. 

What was this place? Perhaps a temple of some sort…. of some long dead civilization it seemed. A palace perhaps? It could have been as grand as the Asgard in it’s day, a bright beacon of life and economy. It was cleaner than she remembered too, as if someone was rebuilding extremely slow, taking their time. The columns along the hall and the stone around now had a dull hue to it, a dimmed shine, and the soles of her feet echoed in the barren silence. How grand this place must have been, Jane thought, she could only being to scratch the surface of the people that lived here, what they looked like, what they could do, even the sciences that they had discovered in their time. Had they fallen by their own nature? 

It was the shields that littered the floor and the remnants of shredded tapestries curled on the floor that gave Jane her answer. War had come here.

Jane made her way further into the structure; bridges that scaled the vastness of this chamber had all buy crumbled away, save one part. At the very end, the last remnants held up a large, wasted, empty column. Another piece of this world that was ingrained in her brain. She’d never forget it—what it looked like, felt like under her fingers, nor the pain and panic that had rushed through her being brought to this place. 

It hadn’t been empty that long, she remembered that, that and the strange red iridescent glow that had come from it. 

This was still truly a place of nightmares. The first time Jane had seen it, the first time she had touched that force it had filled her mind with knowledge Jane had never even known existed, had never had thought to ask, and knowledge that had died countless years ago. She had become over powered by the information that had poured through her. She’d become paralyzed by it all and was left a passenger to her own body, to witness it all firsthand. 

Just as it had rapidly invaded her mind it left just as quickly only leaving a bits of crumbs of what it had originally offered her. 

Now though, now was different. that same force was there, in the air somehow… just as before. It called out, softly, hesitantly. Jane knew that again, somehow, all the information she needed was there, at the tips of her fingers. All she had to do was ask. Remembering it all though, was the trick. 

It came out before she could really form it, the curiosity too overwhelming, not constructed properly, “How did this happen?” 

That was too broad a question. She realized her mistake almost instantaneously and was suddenly surrounded by a world painted in red. The pain was the same as before the pressure that built up in her head, the vise grip around her muscles, that pain mirrored the world around her, control was swept away before she realized what had happened and she was lost. She couldn’t stop it and was forced to watch a violent timeless story unfold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stones—power—infinity stones. Their colors flashed bright and so vivid. Burning bright enough that they burned. 

Hands; there were greedy hands of all shapes and sizes that pulled at her limbs, tearing at her clothes. Thousands of voice that mingled, so in tuned, that they grew into sharpened hissing in her ears. Monstrous beings formed from the shadow reached out to tear at those lights and pull them into themselves. They were dark figures that crawled over one another, desperate to be the first to touch. They battled it out, each one swallowing the other whole, brother against brother, lover and lover, the strong overpowering the weak. Victories were won, becoming bigger than the rest, shallowing a light or two down into their gullets. They had power, it warped their shadows, tinted them a sickly green or dying red. Jane watched the competition take its toll, there were fewer hands that reached out, less figures grew from the darkest corners, and the battles ended fare more quickly, and more violently. One stood out above the rest of them. It grew in size and created a path for itself. Someone had won, it pulled itself out of the red haze, an overwhelming being that dominated all others. It took shape, grew more defined, until a face stared out at her, sending a jolt of fear through her. A name that screamed of the blood it had shed, the civilizations left to rot, and the planets that had imploded on themselves. 

Thanos.

The world shook at that word. That name. It was a name that had gained far too much power. Far too much control over the natural balance of the cosmos. Life…. so much life was was lost… It was half… half of everything, half of everyone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane’s eyes snapped open, heart pounding, and a lack of air in her lungs. Her fingers grasped at the sheets—sheets? Where was she? The panic transferred concerns to the more pressing matters. Where was she? She sat up and took stock of her surroundings and the room she found herself in.

It was a quiet room of warm colors that was so different from the sharp red she was submerged in before, they were warm greens, oranges, and browns. There was warmth here. There was a strange balance between wood and metal that intertwined together through the inlaid bookcases in the corner and surrounding the large window that overlook a whole other world. Once the fog of her mind cleared up and the pain in her head abated she walked over to the window and gazed out to see what was there. 

For the third time in her life Jane Foster woke up in a different world. At least, that’s what it seemed like to her. Yet, there in the distance—was that the Aberdare Mountain Range? Were they near Kenya? So this wasn’t an alien planet after all. 

Jane found herself staring out at the vast view below. What a beautiful sight.It was a land of lush green, trees that stood as high as giants seeming to reach for the mountain tops. While there were huts in the distance it was by no means a struggling civilization or a starving community. No, this place was thriving. That much was obvious that the air crafts that flew through the air and the walls the hummed with magnetic energy.

After the initial look of her surroundings she had already seen technology that was vastly different and more advanced than anything that was being developed in the labs back in the UK. Another day Jane would have taken them apart, taken a moment to study the intricate mechanisms and sketched out their finer details. Now though—now those hands were, for the first time in many a long night, became more of the after thought. For once the scientific mind looked internally rather than externally. After waiting for so long and looking over her shoulder she still hadn’t been prepared for anything that had happened. All that bullshit planning had been absolutely wasted. All that had happened today, what actually had happened?

Even the view couldn’t keep her thoughts from straying back to the day’s earlier events. That fear seemed to have become an integral part of her now. Even when she’d been waiting for something devastating it had never been this. Nothing like this, nothing of this magnitude. Her mind started to to jump between the different moments, never settling too long in one scene before jumping into the next. Too many questions once again piling up; what had all her previous research led? What had started all this? The highlight reel of 8 years of newspaper headlines flashed briefly in her head. Was it earlier than that? And that figure in her dreams—

Wait, stop! Stop. Think. 

Jane faltered. She tried to stop thinking, she tried to, honestly, but she found herself slipping away from coherence. Her eyes began to hurt and those questions turned to liquid, coming down on top of her, pouring over her, coat after coat washed down her spine. Question after question of What? Why? Where? And how? How was all this possible? 

How did HE stand above all this? The questions stemmed from him, started from there she was positive. 

And what about this power? This force that was coursing through her now. Did that stem from him too? 

But then there was Darcy—

Glass shattered next to her, the sound caused the broken dam in her mind to come to a complete halt. Jane stared down in amazed horror at the floor. What had once been an intricate piece of artistically blown glass had become shards littering the floor. As quick as she could the woman straightened up as best she could, trying to pick up all the pieces without cutting herself in the process. Breaking a strangers figurine was never a good way to introduce yourself. Well, it worked for some people, absently thinking about smashed coffee cups from a million years ago. There was no place she could find to throw them out…. so Jane pushed it all into a far corner of the room hidden from the door. 

How had that happened? What was—had that been her? She quickly answered her own question at the strange sensation glowing at her fingertips. 

Jane stared in fascination at her hand. It was astounding to watch the visible power weaving around her fingertips and flowing over her palms. It was very odd, the feelings that were pushing through her. It as if she had been reunited with a long lost friend, a distant friend from middle school who she hadn’t seen in 15 years…. but still… 

What a ridiculous idea. After all, it had almost killed her the last time it had free reign in her body. Maybe it still was, like a cancer that took its time slowly ravaging the body. But she pushed that thought away as quickly as it had come though, it was something different now. That much she could tell. The last time it had wormed it’s way through her body she felt weighed down, constantly exhausted, a long-run wine induced hangover that never left her body. This time, however, she felt fine, neither exhausted nor busting with raw energy. It wasn’t parasitic this time, it was just there. This wasn’t the same force she’d interacted with all those years ago. It didn’t feel the same. It certainly was similar in its movements, the crackling physical energy that bounced and dance. It curled up through the air like a snake, reaching out towards the window….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jane had been so absorbed in her thoughts and entranced by the power that the sound of the door sliding open was left unnoticed. It wasn’t until a voice spoke that she was startled into her surroundings again. “You’re awake,” 

It sounded pained, it sounded relieved. It sounded completely destroyed. 

She yelped, spun, and felt her breath catch in her throat all at the same time. So much really had changed, she thought. She had known it and felt how much the time had past, but seeing it on him really made it all the more apparent. This was certainly not the same man she had hit with her van. The scientist hadn’t thought a man could grow more muscle and cut it so strong and lean, yet there he was. His skin was darker, it was sun warmed and a few more scars along his arms that she remembered when she saw him last. His hair was shorter, far shorter than she had ever seen it. It highlighted and old worn scar on the side of his head…. Jane wondered the story behind that one. 

It wasn’t just physical changes though, The other vast change was how he carried himself. He had experienced defeat, the losses had tipped the scale from the ideals of invincibility. The God of Thunder was uncomfortable, that was something she had never believed possible for him. Even during his time banished to earth, whatever happened, whatever lack of understanding or blunder that would have made another cringe he shrugged off with a smile that made her feel like a school girl in front of her high school crush. He had always been a confident force, whether it was coming back from a victory or from rising off the ground after being knocked down. Here, now, was still a great towering beast but he stood fidgeting, wrapping at his neck awkwardly instead of a prideful force. 

How fascinating… Jane watched a multitude of features play over his face. She wanted to know what he was thinking. At first Jane thought he witnessed the aether playing around on her fingertips and felt her stomach flip at the thought, his fear for her would be thick and heavy. Thor looked like there was far too much already being carried on his shoulders. However, that certainly wasn’t the case. He was staring at her, but it wasn’t in a medical way, he was lost in her. He couldn't keep eye contact with her though, that surprised Jane. He’d always so fierce and direct when his eyes met hers, he had always been someone that sought to look her in the eye; presently, though, they shifted, they’d land on her for a moment then look away. He kept doing that, a back and forth from her face to a spot on the wall somewhere. The silence just kept growing heavier and heavier. 

Jane found she hated that, they had always been so expressive those eyes, they were warm and solid. His eyes used to laugh and matched with the confident air about him. They had always lit up with excitement, whether it was talk of past battles, the antics he’d gotten into as a child, or the future celebrations after another victory. Life excited and enthralled him and his eyes always brought out that light. There had also been special light, one she had started to notice as they had spent more time with each other that was just for her. Jane would catch it out of the corner of her eye here and there when she paid attention. It always caught her unawares and breathless each time. 

Jane tried to see what was going through his mind, she tried to catch at some clues to what he was thinking. There was something different…. his right—  
“What happened to your eye?!” Jane found herself already across the deep chasm and her fingers trailing over the right side of his face. She hadn’t realized what happened until she was already caught, trapped under the gaze of the very things that mesmerized her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I must confess that I’m a bit relieved that this time was far more gentle then before.” Thor smiled down at her for a brief moment, then softly took her hand in his rough calloused ones and brought them to his lips. “ Even now I’m still not able to guess the thoughts that run around inside that mind of yours.” He had expected angry words, harsh demands, and a very sore face with her handprint engrained into his flesh. It had happened every other time he had encountered the beautiful doctor. Thor had been prepared the moment he walked through to the door to be pelted by questions. Instead her hand had caused his brain to shut down. The wiring was disconnected from the rest of his brain. He was left with no words to try and save him. He’d fall back down into the same place all because she’d placed her hand on his face. 

He relished the moment and selfishly held on with a fierce desperation. Thor categorized it and tucked it away; the soft feel of her skin, the scent of pressed ink and pine that was caught in her hair, and especially those eyes. They were pools of warm honey that made him want to give her all the secrets of the universe if she asked for it. Even when they were the painful ones. 

A simple question. An immensely powerful question came next. “What happened?” Was she referring to himself? What had happened to him? Or was it more likely what had happened when earth had started to become a world of dust. 

Where to start and which beginning? That was the hard part. He sighed and scratched at his newly shortened hair… that was something else he had to get used to, he though absently. There were far more changes then he had time to go over down this crazy timeline, even more that he was still discovering.  
“There is a lot to tell,” He admitted, “I’m not sure where to start.” 

Jane did though, she always knew where to begin, “When you left home.” For a brief flash they both were brought back to that day. That was a day when tears had melted into the rain and impossible choices had to be made. They each had sacrificed both pride and heart. Right now neither were ready to really look at those scars just yet, there was more going on then the two of them. There would always be something far bigger going on then the two of them. That was always the problem.  
Thor guided Jane to over to a table in the far corner of the room, sat her down, and started the tale of his longest battle yet. 

In that small room, the god launched into the story. He brought her up to speed on the time since he’d left, the universe he had traveled, the stories he came across and the people he’d met. Just like so many times before Jane became hypnotized by his stories. There were adventures of his brief meetings with a man who claimed himself the Master of the Mystic Arts residing in New York City of all places and a woman warrior, a Valkyrie, who Thor claimed Jane would have gotten along with immensely. 

“….then my sister conjured a fearsome weapon—not as fearsome as Storm Breaker though,” He emphasized with a flourish of a great axe that had replaced the hammer Mjolnir. “But at the time I had no weapon anymore. I could only use these to hands to deal justice and vengence. Hela came at me with a long spear and stole my eye.” Thor made this great sweeping motion with his arm, added sound effects and a fierce battle worthy face. Jane pretended that for just that one second, they were back in her small flat back in London, curled up into one each other and sharing themselves with stories and words, and dampened breath. She could imagine that time had passed at all for them. It was short lived as the events began to recount themselves, the timeline started to catch up with the latest attacks. The battles Thor described grew shorter, the details becoming smaller and quieter. The list of those lost grew bigger. The God of Thunder seemed to wilt with each reminder, the wound still fresh and bleeding. 

All of it, the loss, the pain, and the destruction, seemed to revolve around the energy called The Infinity Stones, the power to control everything in the galaxy. Even Jane was finding it hard to comprehend all of it. The gems had integrated themselves into the vast universe and fell into stories that Jane was familiar with. The line of thread that connected all the events and newspaper clippings up on her office wall suddenly started to come together. She knew of two personally. There was the attack in New York City, the power source called the Tesseract was the Space Stone that had opened up a portal to another vast part of the galaxy. And the other stone… 

Jane was far too familiar with that one. That was a story of her own she needed to tell soon. After hearing all of this, it wasn’t something she could hide. 

Thor began to round off his story, the battle with his sister Hela, started coming to a close. “The ship had started to take off, my people and I watched from above as the great and terrible beast brought forth Ragnarok and decimated our land. But the people of Asgard were safe, that was all that had mattered.” He stumbled for a few moments, at a loss for words at what to say next. His eyes glazed over, is voice deepened, he was lost in the story. “There was another ship, far bigger and more powerful than ours that crossed our path. I could already sense the great amount of power radiating from something in there. I ushered as many as I could to escape pods, only half had escaped before something boarded our ship. We had just sent off another ship when the doors to the loading dock ripped open. It was a Titan that rivaled the power of the Gods. It was a force so strong that the electric currents that ran through me began to hum, to prepare for a battle I knew would be my greatest challenge yet. There it was, in the shadows, a large ominous figure that—“

The door slide open once more and a voice started up in a loud rash vulgar rush, “Alright yer ‘highness’ of manliness, the rest of use would like to get started and we’re waiting on yer ass. I know that pretty boi needs his beauty freaking asshat sleep but rise and shine buttercup.” 

Was that…. was that actually a talking “Raccoon!” The words left her mouth before she could it. It—He whipped his head around to look at her. Their eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something before they widened with realization and stopped whatever he was originally going to say. “Whoops walked in on something didn’t I?” He jumped up on the chair next to them, “Hmmm, rekindling a bit of the ol’ thunder and lightning in here?” 

Thor’s booming laugh washed away the heavy weight of the room and bathed it in something warmer. “I’m sorry my friend. But I was attending to Jane. I was making sure she was feeling better.” 

The Raccoon smirked, actually smirked, back at him, “ Yeah I bet you were giving a whole examination weren’t you?” Jane was too much in shock to care about the implications. That was normally something that would cause her backhand without hesitation, but she was at a loss. It was the shear fact he could even think along those lines, let alone say them astounded her into inaction. 

“Unfortunately this is neither the right time nor place. Jane is in no state for such...” Thor continued in a tirade trying to un-fluster himself as the animal kept wheedling him. 

One thing the astrophysicist noticed right away was that he was constantly moving, he couldn’t stand still for even a moment. He’d pull a piece of metal out of thing air, attach it to something, drill it into another, and then the next second his paws would be empty and waving about at Thor comically. While all this was going she noticed a piece on the back of his neck. Curiosity sped her forward trying to get a good like at the machinery. 

It looked adhered to his flesh—robotics? Genetic manipulation seemed another theory… was it a combination of the two? Maybe the prototype of a cyborg construction in the early stages. It was a strange mixture of design, some parts she could clearly see were very much outdated, yet there were other parts, specifically at the base of the skull that seemed rather advanced in mechanism…. how strange. 

“What the hell are you doing?” The Raccoon spun himself once again to face her. 

“I-I’m sorry. It’s just that…. it’s… well you are—“

“I’m what?” He challenged.

“Truly a marvel.” 

He stared at her, glared actually, at her. Then suddenly glanced away and shuffled a foot. “Alright, you got your one pass. But keep your eyes to yourself sister! I don’t do inter-species shit.” 

That was how Jane Foster was introduced to the Raccoon named Rocket, Captain to a group named The Guardians of the Galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologize for taking so long to write the next chapter out. Life happens and I couldn't catch up no matter how hard I tried. But here it is now and ready to go!   
> I also went back and reworked the layout of each chapter so that its easier to read and not such a cluster of chaos. 
> 
> I hope you continue reading and enjoy the adventure that has been running through my brain for the past few months since I watched Infinity wars in Theaters! 
> 
> ~Till next time!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your patience! This chapter took far longer then I had planned. But I finally got it out and now I can get back to writing new chapters up.   
> Hopefully this was worth the wait. 
> 
> Thanks for the patience.   
> Till next time!

Chapter 4

“You must make ready to greet the People.” The Queen mother spoke from the balcony door. She eyed her daughter with careful consideration, the balance of the royal duties and the duties of a mother towing a fine line. Chaos has erupted in the last 48 hour, and it had become the remaining members of the court to try and salvage the remainder of its people. An assured victory from her son had not foreseen the devastation that had crossed into the borders of Wakanda. Now the kingdom had begun to crumble under the assumption. 

There was so much loss, so much pain, for the second time in such a short time they mourned over the loss of T’Challa, a son and brother. Yet this time she feared there was nothing for the Gods to do. She had prayed to Bast but had been left with no answer. There was nowhere for her to turn to for advice, those she had once sought wisdom from had long passed from these plains. Either the Gods chose not to listen, or this was a power beyond even their doing. 

Ramonda kept a watchful eye on her daughter; she grieved for Shuri silently. Their people had a chance to mourn, they were allowed to crumble under false composure and scream their troubles for the wind to catch. The People were allowed to feel their loss. A Royal could not. Their pain was tucked away for silent, quiet hours of the night, there was no allowance for to fall from composure. Shuri would not be allowed to publicly mourn her brother, not when the people needed a strong force to guide them. But this loss had taken such a mighty toll even the Queen Mother was having a hard time keeping her back straight, and her head held high. Her daughter must achieve this, must push through, for the sake of her family’s honor, for the future Queen she would now have to be, for the sake of Wakanda Shuri must step up for the role of their country’s leader. 

“I will greet the People as Princess of Wakanda. Not as Queen.” She stated from the opposite end of the room, continuing to keep her eyes from catching her mother’s. 

“You must sit at the throne and show the People of Wakanda that we have not fallen. The Royal family still lives, our people still live, Wakanda forever!” Ramonda pulled the conviction from her voice, the power of the once true Queen stood there. 

But her daughter would not listen. She had her own convictions overtaking the throne. She would not sit in the place of power where her father and brother had been. It was her brother’s rightful place. It was not her own, she had the mind that was meant to encourage the prosperity of their home. She was the brains of the operation—the one who had kept her family safe by improving and evolving old designs, upgraded and advancing medical equipment, and fine-tuning the suit of the Black Panther who protected them all. That was the position she had strived for, her way of contributing to the thriving veracity of her country. 

This young woman had pushed the boundaries of Wakanda’s technology in the last decade alone then Ramonda had ever seen in her lifetime. Shuri had been and always would be invaluable to the people. Whether it was by the design that she had hoped for herself, the one she had carved with her own intelligence, or the mantle that demanded one’s life. Now her daughter would have to take up a new duty. It was time her youngest child faced the challenges ahead with the strength of the Panther!

“Shuri, see reason. The people—“ The Queen’s mother was cut off as her daughter abruptly pushed away from the table, rattling the glassware, spilling water on the table, and left her mother to hastily gather the documents left to her for review—the Law of Wakanda. 

The Princess did not listen and her temper, already beginning to unravel, was at its peak. She would not be the false would-be-ruler to sit at the throne. Yet her mother would not have her daughter behaving as if she was still an infant! “You have a responsibility to the People of Wakanda! I will not have you disgracing Bast or the honor of your late Father and Brother,” He voice shook with the conviction, the weight and loss of the past few days laid heavy on her heart, “It is time to take up your rightful position! I am sorry that your time in the laboratories must come to an end, but it is time to stop acting like a child and act like the adult you are. It is time to show them Who you are!” 

Shuri flinched as her mother shouted the last words at her. The last time the Queen Mother had spoken those words it was at the crowning of T’Challa when he was challenged by M’Baku. It had held the power for Shuri’s brother to overcome his adversary and win the challenge. Yet for Shuri, it filled her with a sense of dread and the weight of the crown was suffocating. 

Her life had been held together by solving questions answered through quantitative and qualitative research. Numbers made concrete sense, they were as strong as the metals that made up with a vast empire. All questions about the world around her, But who she was? The P was not sure yet, she had found a world that she thrived in, but she wasn’t sure that was it…. there had to be more. But Shuri wouldn’t find it if she was on the throne. 

“I’m not acting like a toddler heading off for school!” The young woman pulled a tablet of her own design from her pant pocket. She pushed angrily over the screen, “Things are not as impossibly lost as we thought! Look at what I’ve found please!” 

Shuri thrust the screen into her mother’s face. But the woman waved it away, technology would not stray her determination or excuse her daughter from her responsibilities. “We do not have time for this! We must discuss what is in store for Wakanda!” 

“Please Queen Mother,” Okoye spoke for the first time since mother and daughter had begun their heated exchange. “Look at what your daughter has discovered. Look what the princess has found.” 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After having met and rehabilitated a God Jane had thought that an introduction to superheroes would be much simpler, easier. That was apparently not the case when escorted into a room filled with them, powerful and intimidating beings that could run alongside a Go. Thor’s presence hadn't been as comforting as she would have thought, he knew these people, he battled alongside them. It was merely a reminder that there was yet another thing that she was apart of that separated her from the rest. For a long time, that idea hadn’t bothered her, she had been too busy chasing stars and, later, Gods to really care about that. That had changed over the years. 

Even more so, all introductions were, rightfully, only half-hearted, everyone was too lost in their own haunted memories. 

Captain America was the first to break away from the group. Even before he stepped forward, there had been something about him. There was a leadership about him, an Alpha wolf among the others. It was a similar aura to Thor. Both were leaders, both strong enough to make the hard decisions. But there were differences among the two. Thors had been built on responsibility and a sense of duty. It had been a hard one game to shed the crown’s ignorance for the weight of the crown. 

For Captain, though, the strength of his leadership was different. Jane had been told the story of the first real Hero—the first superhero. He’d been a human desperate to help others, he’d chosen to do whatever needed to be done for the good of others. Steve Rogers had worked for this leadership, gained it from his sheer will and strength. Both carried it well, but each had come about it in their own way. One was born with it and one gifted. 

“Dr. Foster, it’s an honor to meet you,” He took her hand in his, a firm handshake. 

“Just Jane is fine, there’s no need for that title.” She stammered back, “The honor is mine. You’ve-you've done so much.” She laughed nervously, almost slipping up and admitting to the collection of comic books and old newspaper clippings she had gathered as a small girl tucked away under her childhood bed. 

“Call me Steve then Jane,” He smiled, and she couldn’t help but go weak in the knees. “As I’ve heard it your research on the convergence and space travel has helped invent a lot of equipment we’ve used in the last few years. Thank you.” 

Thor cleared his throat rather abruptly and pushed her forward, “Come! Meet the others of my team. Defenders of earth and such.”One by one he introduced them, each one in their own worlds, yet politely for Thor’s sake, gave a small smile.

There was the Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, who stood reserved from the rest in her corner of the room. She also nodded her head in acknowledgment and offered a semblance of a kind smile. Jane had heard tales of how aware of the world this woman seemed to be, far more in tune with her surroundings then Thor had ever seen in another warrior. Yet now she appeared fidgety and her mind off somewhere else, fiddling with her fingers and toying with her belt. 

Thor introduced the man who wore the suit of War Machine, “I’ve fought only a few battles with him, but his skills are great and his attendance his is convenient in hard war.” Jim Rhodes stared back indignantly at Thor as he led her to the final Avenger, “Now this, this is the man that helps he stop my fearful sister and destroy my world, Bruce—“  
“Dr. Banner!” Jane had not only heard of him, but she had also used his research in plenty of her own studies going off of his own work. “It’s an honor to meet you! I’ve studied your work over the years, specifically on your theories of wormhole jumps and inter-dimensional travels.”

A realization seemed to light his eyes, “Jane Foster, yes, I remember. Your work on the convergence was groundbreaking. We tried to recruit you for an analysis of nano-technology, but you had been busy with your research in Iceland at the time.” For a moment they could chase ideas of science instead of emotion, but the doors swung open just then. It was time to face whatever the reason they were summoned here. 

Another intimidating figure, a warrior this time, was first to enter the room, the spear in her hand pointed straight up, yet her fingers twitched ready to move at the slightest provocation. She slammed the spear butt down once on the ground, the sound of vibranium sang through the air, “Here before you stands The Queen Mother!” A regal figure emerged from the chamber behind; Her head rose above all others, tall and proud. Only her eyes gave way to the pain that the last few days take caused. It was a look that seemed to be mirrored in everyone who stood before her. But her shoulder gave nothing to the weight they now carried. 

“I thank you for meeting me here today during this…time,” She quietly stumbled over the last word, “While this is un-orthodox to have this conversation in these drawing rooms I thought it best to keep this meeting as quiet as possible. The people are already struggling to build the remains I will not have this added to their weight.”

“Your Highness, what exactly are you looking for from us?” Rogers asked. As far as he had been aware she knew just about much about the situation as himself. It had only been a day and a half since everything had taken place. She had demanded to know everything the minute he and the remaining survivors had returned to the steps. The events had been repeated, over and over, reminding him of the drill sergeants of his past. They could have learned a thing or two from the fearsome woman that he stood before him. 

“Answers. I believe that there is still information we need. There is far more that needs to be understood.” She turned toward Thor, “You are a stranger here on our lands. It is only because you fought beside us that I give you a hand in trust.” She eyed what she believed to be a man before her. “I imagine that you have new information. Such that I very much require.” Ramonda did not ask, she did not need to, she never would. She did just expect answers. “Gentlemen if you follow me this way.” She nodded to her right where her right-hand warrior indicated the smaller room that they had just emerged from. 

Steve went forward, Thor a moment behind him to bid a quick farewell to Jane and then followed after the Queen Mother. “So, Thor, where have you been this whole time? The barber take longer then you expect?” Steve noticed the fresh hairdo of the God who, if he remembered correctly, had been proud of the flowing locks. 

Thor smirked, a man who was strong enough to rally others from their stupors. “I know not of this barber. But a rather fearsome looking wrinkly impish creature cut my hair. Then after that, I had defeated my sister Hela, Goddess of death, started the events of Ragnarok, and awoken a dying star to create a God killing weapon.” He turned toward Song of Rogers and widened his smile, “You know. Hero stuff.” 

Steve returned a smirk. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Banner never could help the tension that seemed to always build a room and, somehow, he’d always felt responsible for it, whether it was actually the case or had remained to be seen. But he had always felt that it had been a sense of responsibility that he needed to do something. Relieve it somehow. He glanced over at Natasha, knowing well enough that some of the tension was centered around that. They hadn’t had a moment to talk since he’d returned to earth; apparently that had been two years. A lot could happen in two years. Try it might be, starting that sort of conversation… it had never happened before. Where to start? How to start? Always more questions, never enough answers. 

Yet he’d always been a fool, continuously trying, and right then was no different as he found himself already making his way towards Nat. 

He cleared his throat and shuffled his feet awkwardly like a high school boy, “You dyed your hair…” Yes, that was the first thing you say to a woman you haven’t seen in years. Talk about fashion you know nothing about. The first moment of the two of them had a moment to themselves, and that was what he thought of first. Banner was nothing but a complete fool. 

Then there it was, that smile she gave him killed. An amused smile. The same one that would grow on her face as he stumbled over words and sentence structures. He had never succeeded in really formulating a proper sentence around her. There was the rare occasion here and there, but nothing consistent. He always overthought what he planned to say to her. 

“I did.” She stated quietly. Then she stays quiet, watching him, waiting for—something? What else could he have said without butchering the attempt? 

Bruce Banner cleared his throat for the second time in only a few minutes, “It looks nice.”

Fuck.... because that was clearly the best he could have said. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thor had to admit, the Queen Mother of this kingdom, the one that stood before him was formidable and fearsome. It reminded him of his late mother, Freya, the woman had been a force to be reckoned with that even Odin had learned over the millennia to choose the battle he took on with his wife. Thor’s mother had once been the leader of the Valkyries before she had been wed to Odin. Before the marriage, her life had been told in stories and given a legacy and myth of its own caliber. The Royal who stood before him was a force that gave off that same aura, it was one that begged no question at who had the power in this room. It was a force all it’s own even with the guards and the princess eyeing these two strange white men prepare for any and all threats. 

Ramonda’s eyes landed on Thor, “Who are you, Newcomer? Who are you, that you effortlessly crashed through our protective shields and rained lightning across these lands?” 

Thor was taken aback for a moment. It had been quite a while since he had to address another royal line, let alone use his actual title. “Forgive me, your Highness. I am Thor, Son of Odin, King of—“ He cleared a tightened throat, “King of Asgard. Would be All-Father and protector of the Nine Realms.” 

A pause as everyone, other than Steve, processed the name announced to them. “What a mouthful of a title.” The young princess murmured. The Queen Mother shut her eyes tight with a momentary practiced silence of a child’s antics til Ramonda composed the outburst and raised an eyebrow at him, “An impressive title. I have not heard of the All-Father since my own Grandfather had told me stories of the King from the stars.” 

Had his own father….? Thor started for a moment, he had known that his father had found favor in this world; the earth’s history spoke of that. Odin had told Thor when he was a boy of the discoveries he’d had when visited earth, the people and their lives; books, stories, moving pictures on that screen all humans watch, art and music, all inspired by his father. His father hadn’t stepped foot back on earth for hundreds of years till those months he spent back on these lands before passed on into the halls of Valhalla. Even now, his father still seemed to be guiding him, even when amongst the stars. 

He was so lost in this discovery that he hadn’t realized the Queen Mother was still talking to him. “… I wonder, are you truly a God?” The woman before him paused a moment before revealing a small, sad smile, with a story behind those eyes, “But who am I to question the title of a god?” Where ever those memories had taken her, the emotions or feelings coursing around her drew back behind a curtain and the monarch stood before both Rogers and himself. “Now between a God and a Man Out of Time perhaps we can pull together what exactly has happened to these lands and my people. How does one man—a beast, walk through barriers and erase over half of my people from this earth?” 

“It isn’t just the Wakanda your Highness, and it’s not just earth either.” Steve Rogers said. He met Ramonda’s gaze head-on, “It’s the universe.” 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Banner had tried, Jane gave him credit for that. Though it had been painful to witness. He could only watch as Natasha had walked off casually, spoken to another warrior and then proceeded to help herself to a drink in the far corner, all while furtively texting on her phone. Banner had spent the better half hour, desperately trying to covertly figure out who she was texting back so rapidly. But he kept turning up unsuccessful at every attempt. 

Beside her was a belligerent raccoon who kept mumbling angry words at a contraption he was somehow constructing right then and there in the middle of the room. Somehow—strangely, he reminded her of Darcy. Granted, furrier then her friend, he had more of a mechanic flare than she had balance. But there was that same crude, crass, and brutal whit about her that Rocket seemed to match quite well. They both also had this knack of gaining and shedding titles quickly. Darcy had gone from an intern to an assistant and back, while Rocket went from navigations to Captain, down to mechanic somehow…. his stories kept changing the roles he’d played.

He seemed to tolerate her reasonably well. He’d taken a sort of liking to the God of Thunder and, in turn, that liking seemed to have made him curious about what made a God have drooling goo-goo eyes for a human. While he’d never admit it out loud, he was curious about the astrophysicist. While Darcy had trained Jane to be quick on her feet with a comeback, it was hard keeping up with a very volatile raccoon of all things… especially when references to aliens, and other species across the universe. But Jane’s contentment at watching Rocket build great very tiresome, she couldn’t enjoy the way he seemed to seamlessly put parts. She grew bored and wondered if this was how Darcy had always felt mourned Jane when she had gone on some tangent or another. 

Somehow in the midst of googling the device, he was making they had gotten to the subject of why he kept being called rabbit and a raccoon. A friend of his—Quill called him a raccoon or a trash panda while Thor called him a rabbit. “What the hell are those things anyway?!” 

Jane tried to explain it to him as best she could in a few different ways, but unfortunately, it still hadn’t clicked. It was an interesting endeavor trying to explain it all because merely saying its what you look like without implication of insult the best Jane could do, “Remind me to show you a picture when I have a chance.” She wondered, briefly, if there was cell service here in Wakanda. She could have shown him a picture… or tried to contact the list of names that had begun to run like a checklist through her head. In the chaos of the last few days her phone had vanished. 

Soon Rocket became too involved in his small project to keep up a conversation with Jane, or want to, she wasn’t sure, but his words had been reduced to a few short “I hear ya” mumbles. But she let him be and could only do what everyone else was doing, wander around aimlessly until the Queen Mother summoned for them as well. What the woman wanted she wasn’t sure. Unless she had become a piece of luggage for Thor…. again. 

She sighed at a headache that had started to form. All she could do was wait. Maybe soon there would be answers. None for Jane though…. She eyed her fingertips, there were some answers she’d have to figure out on her own. She wasn’t sure those would be here in Wakanda though. Ironically, just like most of her questions, those were up in the stars. Much further out of reach than her studies on the convergence could have ever brought her. 

With her eyes cast out through the large floor to ceiling window, she watched the landscape in an attempt to past the time. What was left of this world was trying to pull itself together. People worked because there was nothing else for them to do. There were only bits of remains left of shrapnel from alien spaceships, broken weapons, and various debris. Those that had no job were left stranded on the fields, they shifted from foot to foot, they stood their helplessly next to piles more massive then themselves, they were tasked to tackle on their own. All seemed lost, yet none of them made moves to find anywhere else. 

The repetition of bodies that moved back and forth, of piles that grew larger and larger, created a bizarre semblance of peace, one that was tangible enough to cling to. They tried to grab a bit of slice for themselves. Maybe Jane could sneak out and back to her room... 

The thought died quickly and dismissed just as fast. She’d been doing that a lot in the last few hours, pushing away ideas as soon as they came. Besides, she could barely navigate the hallways, she’d never been able to find her way back to the room she was in. But for some reason, there was a part of her, a childish part, that didn’t want to stray from these people grouped together. Solidarity in the unfamiliar she guessed. 

“Mind if I join you over here Dr. Foster?” A voice spoke from over her right shoulder. “I could use a change of scenery.” Natasha Romanov made her way over to the scientist. 

“Jane, please.” She corrected and fumbled with the drink that was suddenly offered to her. She got out a weak thank you before sniffing at the contents of the glass. 

“It’s not anything you’d be familiar with,” The agent said, “It's a drink made here. It has the taste of a light beer, but it’s the alcohol content of hard liquor.” A small chuckle came out when she watched the scientist take a cautious sip and then down it a moment later. Impressive. 

“I didn’t realize I needed that,” Jane admitted. 

She watched the woman next to her for a moment as she poured another glassful for Jane. There was no doubt in her mind that the woman was lethal, there was hard-earned muscle, and a straight back that gave off an air of comfortable confidence. Yet with all this power and strength she still had this presence about her, something that Jane found steadying to be around. She quietly found that she was jealous. What she wouldn’t have given to have even a fraction of that. “To be honest, I haven’t really focused on anything outside for more than a minute or two…. my mind keeps wandering elsewhere.” 

She jumped slightly at the loud clang that suddenly sounded off in the room followed by a cursing animal trying to gather the parts that had fallen on the floor. “Can’t anything freaking stay together for more than a few damn ass hat minutes?!” He cried as he fumbled around the floor for them. 

“I only met him myself a few hours before you did,” Natasha said, “Seems a bit odd. He started asking me about prices on some of my guns and gauntlets. I have a feeling though, that was just out of courtesy.” Her hand hovered slightly over her utility belt, fingers fluttering over different areas, checking out her inventory, Jane realized. “He came here with Thor, showed up after the Bifrost crashed down in the middle of the battlefield. Though I gotta say, he’s a bit impressive in a fight.” 

Jane tried to image that picture, though if it was any indication to the empty holster he had strapped to his back the mammal dealt with some insane weaponry. 

“I’m curious to know the story about how those two met. It’s bound to have been an interesting adventure.” She eyed the doctor, “You wouldn’t happen to know would you?”

Smart. Jane had gathered that from her private research for all those months, seeing her in person stabilized that, but now it had been made concrete. After years of dealing with brilliant minds and jealous, competitive scientists, Jane could tell when someone was fishing for information, no matter how brilliantly they played to casually convey it. It was subtle, a completely innocent question if you weren’t paying attention to the context. She was curious about the relationship Jane had with the God, in all probability it was probably the majority of the people in the room. Thor had become apart of the Avengers years ago, even when they had been ‘seeing’ each other. But how much did they know about the situation? About her? 

Natasha smiled, genuinely, “He would brag over your achievements anytime we had gathered to share information or come together for a fight. Your nomination for the Nobel prize was all he talked about for a week straight.” 

She blushed with embarrassment… the Nobel prize nomination had been over a year and a half ago, almost two years at this point if she really thought it over. She remembered how proud he had been when she’d made the announcement, he acted as if she had come back from a hard-won battle. He’d shouted out his praises for her from the little rooftop apartment she’d borrowed from her mother. It had taken her a while to coax him from the roof to keep people from staring out their windows at him. Thor had only given her the biggest goofy smile he could have possibly mustered up. 

“You are a point of pride for him. Rogers would usually have to break up the ‘debates’ Thor, and Stark would have with each other.” 

Jane blinked. Twice. “Debates?”

She nodded, “Each would list off every accomplishment you and Pepper Potts ever did; running a large billion dollar company, noble peace prize nomination…..Thor always seemed to have the last word which then drove Tony crazy. He’s a man who’s never been challenged over the last word. It was entertaining to watch.” 

That must have stopped in the last year though, Jane thought. Since they’d broken off…. whatever they were, she doubted he had anything to say about her at all. He’d always seemed so invincible, even when he’d appeared human all those years back. He’d survived their break up a lot better than she had, that she was sure of. He’d had a goal, a mission, something that he could throw himself into and forget. Jane—Jane had her research, and that had been the problem. Her research on the convergence had changed drastically after she had met him, her newfound love for the stars and the constellations, all of it, had been surrounded by everything that was him. All her research had ever done, even in the farthest corners of her mind, had drifted someway, somehow back to him. At first, it had brought her nothing but sadness and spent a lot of time crying. It then turned into an anger that stayed with her for a long time. So long she couldn’t remember if she was mad at him or just mad at herself. She hadn’t been given the piece of mind she thought she’d have when they ended things. Instead, it had left her with a gnawing ache every time she looked into a telescope or saw a comet strike it’s way across the sky. 

“You know before Rogers came along I was a one-woman show. I was given an assignment on my own, carried out the mission and was back for the next one, by myself. There was the occasional partner for a two-man job. But that was it, nothing more. In this business, anything you do, how you act, or what you feel is used against you. You start to learn to trust less, keep an eye on every corner, keep your head down push on forward. Then Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, came along and decided that I was going to be the first member of this new team of his. First ‘official’ one apparently. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.” She gazed at Jane with a spark in her eye, “Even when I kicked him off a 45 story building. He kept coming back, never an offer, just to talk. He had been doing it for so long that when he stopped showing up suddenly, I didn’t really know what to do. Fury had always managed to find me right after an assignment, bloody and broken, tired and exhausted, or just walking through the door of my latest hideaway. I’d been used to quiet hours filled with conversation, and I hated him.”

Natasha seemed to veer off somewhere for a moment, staring out at a distant spot out in the fields. Almost lost. Before Jane could speak up and try to guide her back, she spoke again, “I had been bound to one duty or another, one responsibility after another. It didn’t matter who it was for, what it was for, even with Fury. I was bound by responsibility. It was like that for so long that when I found myself being offered things I wanted, not tied up by a clause or deal, I didn’t know how to reach for it. Or how to keep it.” She looked Jane in the eye, returning back to a solid place where she could feel the ground beneath her feet, “I still don’t. But I found a place, here with these weirdoes, who understand that burden. Some of us just seem to carry it better than others.” 

Jane was at a loss for words, caught in responsibility, that word was something that had always hung between Thor and herself. Most of their conversations had, at one point or another, shifted to responsibility. It had one of their last conversations. And his… his tended to be much larger than himself, more than the two of them. 

In an attempt to change the direction she hastily took a swig of the absently remembered alcoholic beverage in her hand and destroyed her throat in the process. It went down far harsher the second time around. 

There was no time for a retort or any piss poor attempt at smoothing over her fumble. Jane hadn’t had the time to even think of one. There was a screech, one that grew steadily closer, it silenced the room in seconds, the demeanor changed, fear perforated around them. A second screech came from above them. Very close. Black Widow touched the intercom on her headset, “Rogers, we’ve got some late guests for the party. You might want to come back for the afterparty.” 

All eyes were fixed on the ceiling. Rocket cocked his gun and looked ready to take aim on the groans and shrieks from above, a Dora Milaje did a double take, “Did we not check you for weapons before entering this room?” 

Rocket gave her a side-eyed look, “You did.” 

The crash didn’t come from the ceiling where the majority of the eyes were cast, it came from the large window that overlooked the grounds. Jane and Natasha were the first to see it before a vary of claws, teeth, and muscle blinded their vision. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do we know about these infinity stones then?” 

When Ramonda had first heard of them a few days ago, she hadn’t believed it. How could she? That much power in six stones, no longer than the stones adhered to the rings on her finger, could have that much influence on the universe? Enough power to wipe out a countless number of lives. But then she thought of her own life, one that was built by Wakanda. It had flourished into a thriving civilization that was ahead of any other country in the world. The gifts of the Black Panther was proof enough in itself, both her husband and son had done such tremendous feats that no mortal man should have ever been capable of. All of these blessings had been gifted by a meteor that had struck down deep into the ground. The earth around it had changed, magic had taken hold of the planet, and Gods had been invoked. What other magic had the universe hidden in its vast plains? 

Both Steve Rogers and Thor traced back the events of their contact with the stones; Steve recounted the events of his experiences with the Tesseract. It had been his first ‘real’ mission serving in the armed forces of America. It was where he became the hero of America. The living breath of all that was just and right. Captain American’s battled had been against a man with a warped mind that created the cult and terrorist group HYDRA. Thor then stepped in to bring up his brother Loki. While Thor let his brother’s story unfolded there was a strange gut-wrenching guilt that ate at him, a string of sentences where he found himself listing all the horrible events his brother had started. He felt like a child tattling on his younger brother to stave off a scolding. It did not change how much he wished his brother was still around. Yet it was the rehearsal of those repeated lines that got him through his knowledge and input. Eventually, the storytelling had made its way to the creation of Vision. 

Thor had yet to mention Janes involvement with the stones. Not yet anyway, Thor remembered S.H.I.E.L.D’s interrogation of them after the events of Malekith crashing into a University in London. Their treatment of Jane had not settled well with him. At first, Thor had restrained himself, for the first few rounds. It had soon become apparent at the tactics they were using, they repeated the same questions over and over again, different times and in different ways. They had battered at her retelling considerably more than his—they dared only interrogate him so far, but because Jane was a citizen of their rules, she was more bound to do as they requested. Within reason. They created patterns and then changed them again, bringing in new faces for every round. There had been a constant flow of people in and out of the small room. Jane had stopped him more than once from reaching for his old weapon, Mjolnir. But after the blood samples had been taken Thor had lost his mind when the next Official that had demanded she take off her clothes and pulled a camera from a satchel, he had slammed his fist on the table and left a considerably large dent. Jane had not stopped him that time. 

While Thor had no worries of Rogers, for he was a man of high esteem and honor, he did not know this country nor its way. A benevolent ruler was only one when their Kingdom was not threatened. Their priority was to their Kingdom and their people before all else. He did not know what they would take from Jane. He had to play his words the aether was longer apart of her. It was only another story in a long list of tales, it was where it should stay. Where it would remain. 

But it seems that Thor didn’t have as much time to calculate his thoughts when the conversation ventured into that territory. The creation of their teammate, Vision, caught the eye of the Queen. She pressed more information on him, going back and forth between Steve and Thor, grabbing for more details. 

“Are there any others who have come in contact with these stones? Anyway, we can try to get their personal perspective; anything that could give us more clues as to the power source of these stones?” The Princess, Shuri, had interrupted at that moment, she had been recording the meeting on a square glass tablet. She had pulled forward and settled at the table by her mother’s side, her eyes had yet to look up from the glass piece in her hand since this gathering had begun.

“I have heard from the rabbit that his crew had come in contact with the power stone. They had to share combined strength to withstand the force coursing through him.” 

Shuri looked up at him and blinked, confused, “The rabbit?” 

“Yes, the one out that has been loudly showing quite an impressive vocabulary of insults. The small furry one, with the ears, and the mask-like markings on his face.” In his explanation, he used both had to emphasize the ears and whiskers of Rocket. 

“The trash Panda!” Steve joined in a slight smile on his face— it sobered quickly at the faces of the Queen and Princess, “The raccoon.” He corrected quickly. 

“Are there any others who have come in contact with the stone?” 

Steve remained silent but shot a look at Thor. The demigod had not realized that he had grown a fondness for this man as the years and carried on. They had found that they had shared a few unique traits while being on this planet. They both had a lacking knowledge of media references that were constantly thrown around by the people on earth. Both knew what it was like to lead men into battle, to fight alongside worthy warriors. They knew the bitterness of the battleground. The friends had confided with each other on old battle wounds, and Thor had let slip his confusion about his scientist. He’d thought that maybe a man from earth would have known what to properly do or say around a woman— mainly when they made them angry. Steve had laughed and said, “You asked the wrong person, sorry Thor. I’ve never been good with women. But, honestly, I don’t think even Stark knows what to do when a woman gets mad at him. And making a woman angry—anyone angry at him is a gift of his!” 

Rogers was also the only one who knew the extent that Jane had gone through when she came in contact with the aether years ago. In concern, Thor had asked Steve to keep an eye on her. Merely, to check in on her whereabouts when he could. He worried if there could have been lasting effects from that power that had coursed through her body. Nothing had seemed to pan out, thank the All-Fathers. But even after that scare, as a favor to Thor, his friend still kept tabs on her, a favor to him. 

So when the man glanced over a Thor with a questioning glance, he pieced together his words carefully, “The lady Jane Foster, the Astrophysicist that I have brought here, has also been in contact with one of the other stones. The Reality stone. My people and others have referred to it over the centuries as the Aether….” He told a similar story to what he'd told Fury, and S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor gave a bit more detail though then what he had told the Agents. IT had been used and controlled by a Dark Elf named Malekith. He told them of the power and fury the aether could create. It had been given the ability to take any form, whatever it needed to survive. He kept what he could, about Jane, as quiet as possible. Time would tell, though. 

“… as far as we know there have been no signs that she is still connected to it in some way.” He finished.

There was no one else—anyone else was either confirmed gone or presumed dead. 

Steve steered the conversation in another direction. “What is the goal of collecting all this information for? If we had a better idea of what your end goal we could fine-tune our information. What exactly are you looking for?” 

Before anyone could answer a piercing shriek filled the air, and a chill ran down their spines. It was a sound that would forever be ingrained in their memories, what happened only days ago would be remembered down to the finest details. Something they would always carry. 

The earpiece in Roger’s ear sounded to life, “We’ve got some late guests for the party. Might want to come back for the afterparty.” 

There was a shattering of glass, shouts of alarms sounded, and the screams started up again. The thrum of electricity already danced along Thor’s arm, and Rogers grabbed his shield. The marched together as one and threw open the doors and rushed into the chaos. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jane had felt the vice grip on her arm that yanked her backward and threw her on her back. The air knocked out of her lungs, and the world tilted again, a terrifying flash of fear Jane thought the pain from days ago had come back with a vengeance. Jane had never been more thankful to register that the dull eating throb coursing through her body was a different kind of pain. Still didn’t change the fact that everything hurt like a bitch. 

Shrill screams sounded out all around her. She scrambled to right herself as best she could and rolling into the assassin next to her. “Are you alright?” But the hiss of pain answered Jane’s question before Natasha could say anything short of a lie. 

“Fine,” Natasha gritted her teeth, she looked down at her abdomen, a large shard of glass protruded out of her, “Yeah, happens all the time. Get moving!” 

“Not without you! Come on!” Jane had meant to help the woman up when Natasha reared up and pulled at the shard and held it up in bloody glory, “See? All the time. Now move!” Together the ladies pulled themselves up trying to make their way away from the window, as two more creatures had begun to pull themselves through the window and into the chaos. 

Somewhere behind them Jane heard Rocket cackle gleefully while he let off a round of ammunition into the air. Natasha somehow went from the one being pulled along to taking control and pulling Jane along with her. She pulled them both behind an overturned couch. “Stay here, ok?” She hadn’t really asked a question, it was a command that brooked no argument. 

“Wait, what about you?!” If Jane couldn’t go out there, then this woman shouldn’t either! She had glass stuck in her side only moments earlier. But when she reached for the assassin, Jane only felt the cool metal of a gun in her hand. “You know how to use this right?” But again it wasn’t posed as a question but a fact. 

Yeah, it had become something Jane actually was familiar with. She’d been to a shooting range after the events of New York and from the battles that Thor had come from. She had wanted to be prepared for anything else that could have come her way. Though it had done little when she had been brought to another planet entirely and left in a lethargic state. But she could do this—she had no other choice. So she grabbed the handle of the gun checked that there was ammo and cocked the gun. 

Jane could swear the Black Widow just gave an approving smirk but had no real time to process that before the woman was gone and Jane was left with her eyes running in every direction and trying to remember what her instructor taught her the proper aiming and firing of a gun. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four on the ceiling, one on the right wall, another four on the floor and at least two or three had started climbing up the wall. Stragglers, survivors of the ships Thor wrecked, that had somehow passed by the past few days undetected. Everything was not nearly as tight nor guarded as it should have been. The world had toppled over, and everything had drastically changed. 

Natasha reverted to the fight, pulled everything into a narrowed focus and honed in on each target, each upcoming move, and maneuver. They were animal-like, each limb was wildly erratic as if with its own mind, large teeth that were capable of tearing through most armor, and sinewy muscles that were grotesquely misshaped. Yet everyone in the room seemed to have held their own. No one had fallen yet, though it looked like a few would collapse in a moment if they didn’t get help. The King’s Guard handled themselves well, she had no worry about them, they had been trained almost as well as she had growing up. Almost. Meanwhile, the raccoon had cheerfully decided to whip out an overtly large gun and fired off round after round cackling the whole time. He definitely seemed to be enjoying himself. 

But where had Bruce gone? Since his return back to earth, she had seen him for only a few minutes here and there, they hadn’t had a chance to talk just the two of them. Natasha had no time to question the reason Hulk had not made an appearance or why there was a constant fire of fear in his eyes. He had been gone for two years, and she more than most could understand the concept of time. 2 years of days strung together sped by so fast. They just kept spewing up faster and faster. Who you were years ago was not the same person who stood looking in a mirror. So how much had he changed? She had been afraid to find out, tried to observe him from afar and gather information. All those years of training hadn’t seemed to pick up much. Yet there had still been so much gentleness—his fluttered attempts to talk with her had always been endearing. He was the man who could commit the greatest violence, but he kept a caring, compassionate side. She hadn’t known another soul like that. It had caused a worry for him to build up, in every battle, where ever they had fought, her eyes had always sought out his form, in every shape and design of him, it had been like that even when he’d disappeared. Hoping she’d catch a glimpse of a flash of green or an award man shuffling in from around the corner. 

That was what Natasha did right then, she scanned the room for his figure and found him in the far corner, trying to figure out a spear that had fallen from someone’s grasp. Relief flooded through her system. She disposed of the creature in front of her and ran toward the doctor. After sliding across the floor, throwing a dagger, and toppling into the man they had ended up in the same position they had years ago battling Ultron in the Avengers Tower. 

“No green guy?” she asked breathlessly.

It took him a few moments to register the question, “Still no green guy.” 

Bruce watched her nod at him, her eyes had already jumped into calculations. An exit strategy. Even with the chaos around them, the gun that was going off, and the un-animalistic screeches that echoed around them, he could only stare down stupidly at her and just thought about how beautiful she was. He had never seen anyone in such a light—he thought he had. But the light that came off of her nearly blinded him. 

Should he have said something? It hadn’t seemed like the right moment but…. he just wanted to tell her how much he had missed her. The small fragments of two years had broken into little bits that he had started collecting again. But she had always been there, the hymn of that lullaby…. the sun’s going down…

But when he opened his mouth, she had already grabbed his arm and yanked him into another direction. The hapless fool that he was would have followed her anywhere. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Hey, Scientist lady help me with this!” Rocket tossed a gigantic weapon in her face.

Jane blinked twice, “W-what?!” 

“I need yer help with this! It’s Jammed up again! That’s what you get when you don’t have time to make finer details on a design.” He waved it further in her face. How was she supposed to help? There was no design aspect that she was familiar with nor was there anything remotely man made about this machine.

“How am I…?” Jane stared helplessly down at the—was it even a gun? It looked more like a laser. 

“Look, I just need you to tweak this spring here while I tighten this end over here. I can’t reach both sides at the same time! Just hold this here,” he instructed with a screwdriver, “ push it here and….” Jane blindly did as she was told trying to keep up with all the erratic instructions that were tossed at her. 

“Maybe create something that isn’t as big as you are?” She struggled to hold the spring in place as she pushed a console down at the other end, “Something that doesn’t get jammed!” She yelped when she almost lost a finger in, what she then realized, was a small compartment of the blaster, glowing with some sort of radiation. 

“Want the power need the size!” Jane looked Rocket dead in the eye until he rolled his own in admittance, “Alright so I like big guns!” He left no room for any sort of debate when she spun around and shot out at the ceiling above them. 

“Yeah, ok I can see the point of ‘big gun.’” She stared down at the giant mechanism in her hands. Yeah, she could definitely see the appeal. 

The shot of Rocket’s gun mixed with the lightning that had suddenly careened its way into the room. Jane’s heart jumped up into her throat. He always had the perfectly timed entrances. She tried to peek over the top of the fallen couch to try and spot him. But there was so much chaos in all direction she wasn’t able to get a clear look at any part of the room for more than a few seconds. A body was thrown over their heads and landed with a sickening sound as bones shattered on impact. Beside her Rocket cursed again, the gun had jammed. Her attempt to find her God ended quickly as she tried to help the raccoon collect the fragments of his rifle that had managed to fly in all directions when he attempted to pull the trigger. Both of them blurred together strings of creative cursing, some even Rocket was impressed with, as they tried to quickly reassemble the thing again. 

“Do you wanna use this?” Jane tried to pass him the handgun, a .26 Glock. But the raccoon narrowed his eyes her in insult, “Are you freaking kidding me? Don’t be that asshole. Don’t.” 

Another blast of lightning skittered over the ceiling, catching two more beasts in its web before crashing onto the ground. One of them landing only a few feet away from them. A new cold wave of fear crashed through her. What were they? It was made of molted blackened flesh, exposed muscle and charred remnants of skin and bone. Exposed fangs that cut at its own mouth and— 

It twitched, it’s back arched, raising its limbs above its body it released a shrill scream. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Jane kept scrambled for the remaining fragments of the gun, her eyes flashed between the ground and the thing that had started to become aware again. “Rocket, we gotta move faster.” He heard the urgency in her voice and finally paid attention to his surroundings instead of the latest failed design, the hackles at the nape of his neck rose then, he found a way to move his ass faster. A move-your-ass-or-die speed. He also joined in Jane’s chant, he used a bit more creative world play though. 

The creature began to gather it’s bearing, flipped over onto its stomach, and gazed around, landing of the two closest bits of meat that it could sink its teeth into. Jane watched horrified as its muscles bunched under themselves. It was getting ready to spring, a predator confident in its calculation of attack. “Rocket,” she called out a warning, his fingers picked up an even faster speed, “Rocket!” Her hand reached out blindly trying to find the handgun rocket had slapped out of her hand when he’d been insulted by its size. 

“I’m right there, I’m right there! Just one….last….thing….” But they didn’t have moments, only seconds, and those had dwindled into nothing. Muscles clenched, it gave one final screech and launched itself into the air. 

“Rocket!” Jane pulled at his arm, yanking him towards her, just as she saw the gleam of drool covered fangs and smelled the reek of rancid flesh caught between its teeth. 

The air was stolen from her lungs a second time, and the world became consumed in red. The Aether had come alive and burst from every pore of her skin and lashed out. A gargled scream had risen from the beast as both it and Jane, with rocket still clutched to her, thrown backward and over the couch righting itself. Then everything stopped. The room was silent, the battle supposedly over.

She felt their eyes before she saw them, it was a blend of awe, apprehension, and even twitches of fear. The eyes that bore into her the deepest with concern and worry was suffocating. His eyes caught her the moment they opened, they darkened with memories from 5 years ago. There had been so much danger, so much unknown, blinding with loss and a sinking pit of hopeless dying courage. 

The past seemed to be repeating itself evolving to consume the universe instead of just a small, lowly world.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your patience! I'm starting to get back into the swing of things so hopefully there will be more consistent progress in each chapter.   
> Hopefully this was worth the wait. 
> 
> Thanks for the patience.  
> Till next time!

Chapter 5

Balance is a very precarious thing. A fragile touch can tip the scale and throw everything in a chaotic upheaval. Both sides much be equal, must be shared between each other, weaving in and out of one another in a harmonious dance. Life and nature, all its resources, must compliment one another or it fails before it can even begin.  
But it is life, the selfishness to thrive and nurture one’s instinctual animal behavior. That keeps those from doing what needs to be done to achieve that. There have been countless lives, numerous worlds, so much of life itself that fell by its own destructive hand before it could thrive and reach a new potential. The universe was finite, it’s resources finite. But no more, he thought. 

Thanos had done what no one else had achieve. He had been the only one with the will to act on it. Instead of trying to solve the problem piece by small fragmented piece, he had sacrificed it all and saved the universe. He had given those that had survived a chance to come to their truest potential, to extend themselves further than their minds had ever dared dream. Thanos had made the sacrificed. By reducing half of the universe’s population he had saved thousands of planets, trillions of homes and life itself. He had restored worlds with a clean slate, a chance to start over, revel in the way a civilization would thrive. Planets that had been on the brink of collapse were given he one thing they desperately needed, the one thing they never knew was the key to survival. Their salvation. An idea of hope to rebuild and make it far more glorious than before. A priceless gift. 

Lives would no longer have empty bellies or have to fight over scraps of land. It was all free game, it was all available again. All those resources. It was by him alone that all of this had been achieved. By his hand he had saved worlds. It was a universe that needed correction. 

Yet no one would know, not the man that he was. They would never known the flawed being who had shed blood, sweat, and willing accepted heavy loss. Instead revered to what he had become. Washed from the sins of man and cleansed of the want for tribal things. He was above all those and should be treated as such, taken an example to shape and mold the future. Let them know of his triumph. 

It would not take much, only a few steps. Merely a need to spread his name across the winds, and soon the story would be ingrained in minds, spread by their words of worship and song, till, finally, they all said his name under their breath, a prayer before sleep. Thanos would be a name of praise. It was his reward for the sacrifices he had to give with open arms. 

He had forsaken his first opportunity, the weight of his personal attachments had consumed his self righteous needs and, in turn, had caused a selfish panic to run its course. He had lost one opportunity and been punished by fate to lose all of it anyway. But the universe…. the universe, itself had presented him with a miracle. Another chance that he could not give up. Never again. 

“Was it worth it?” It had become a phantom voice, there in the far recesses of his mind. 

Now, it had seemed, there was still more he had to suffer through as payment for the balance he had created. Nothing came without a price and for what he had done that piece was heavy. Little One stood there, standing the far right of him, in a world beyond the worlds, where space and time stopped. She waited for him there. Always waiting.  
“What did it cost you?” His daughter asked again. 

He stared over at her, trapped. Just as the first day he had met her, her life had just started. A being of pure raw potential. Thanos had been drawn to her form the crowd of screaming women and fighting men. His little one had attacked her capture with bare teeth and nothing but fists. She had been a warrior born in a time of complacency. Her people’s defenses had proven that the moment he had reached her planet. Their defenses had fallen without much pressing and it’s people are left unprotected. 

But her, Gamora she called herself, had fought to reach her mother, had strained against her bondage and fought for what she loved. A parent to a child, he recalled, was the world. The complete universe that set rule and law, gave her mobility and language. There was a purity in her that drew him across the ruins of a city square until he was standing in front of her. 

How small she was, how her hand had barely managed to wrap around his finger. It had brought back a side of him that he thought he had left behind. 

“What’s wrong Little One?” 

“Was it worth it?” The child asked again. 

“I saved them.” He answered. He had saved the universe. 

“What did it cost?” Had been her rebuttal. 

He stared down at her, his eyes growing heavy and unclear. “You know the answer.” 

It seemed to be the wrong answer. Or at least one that hadn’t been satisfying to her. A stunning blindness flashed suddenly and all in a second he found himself on in bed staring out at the window. There in front of him was lush and green with sounds of life everywhere. 

Thanos had been spending his time breathing life back into the planet. He had arrived in a wasteland of sand and dirt. There had been no water, no animal life, nothing buy a bleak weariness that had been suffocating. His goal wasn’t to create an illusion to trick his enemies, but something lasting and permanent to leave behind when it was his own time to join the afterlife. But that took time, it was a slow process that required finding the right organisms to push and prod at. There was time and power that needed to be pushed into the soil. He had found a way to keep his mind occupied for a few hours during the day. Away from the shadows in his hut and his Little One that hid in the far corner. With it came a physical exhaustion that he welcomed everyday. 

He hiked up the trail that had begun to form from continued use till he reached the top of the hill. There Thanos took a spot on the bench he had carved with his own two hands. What a pure simplistic joy it had been. It had been amazing to have the time to create something with his hands again. It had been countless years since he had done anything of the sort. Perhaps, with time, he would build more. 

The scrap of metal caught his eye. Yes, while there were now small joys that he could have but the price was there. He was still unraveling the mystery of the gauntlet. After the price had been exacted a searing pain had encased his hand, the metal had melted and warped, pieces had shriveled in parts with bits of burnt flesh clinging to it. It had become adhered to his very hand, forever apart of him. The gleam of gold had disappeared and was replaced with a beaten metal and the smell fo his flesh had finally started to dissipate. There was still power there, he could feel it. It came to him when called upon, it was slower then before, it took longer to respond to his wants and desires. Perhaps they were booming dormant. Maybe the force of the universe would lie in wait until there was a need for them to once more be called upon. 

There was no way of telling. Thanos was only the instrument for these stones, a way to correct the imbalance that had plagued the universe. Nothing more. 

Until the time they’re needed again, if ever again in his lifetime, he would hold on to them, watch over them. The universe now had a fresh start and how fortunate he was to witness such a miracle.

“Perfectly balanced, as all things should be” 

The semblance of peace that settled over those thoughts abated quickly. A humming that started off as nothing more then an insects buzzing grew louder, the volume building until that was all he could focus on. An incessant buzzing that drone out everything else around him. It was coming from the gauntlet he realized, the stones had begun to create a small melody that was somehow able to sound harmonious and at the same time in complete discord from one another. The reality stone, the red one, growing brighter, pulsating. 

“The Universe has judged you.” Little One stood before him, grown enough to have gathered a stone of hatred in her eyes. 

The pulsating them grew faster. 

Yes, thought Thanos, it would appear so.


End file.
